Minutes of the 77 th meeting of Chairman & Secretaries of SW Energy & Environmental Management Groups (EEMGs) held at Stratton House Hotel on 7 th June 2013. The Cotswold Energy and Environmental Management Group hosted the meeting with their officers taking the chair and producing the minutes. The Chairman welcomed our visitors to The Stratton House Hotel, Cirencester our meeting venue. 1. Present: PH NW JT MS JE TL JM RB Mr Phil Harding (website editor) Mr Norman Wright, Avon & Somerset EEMG (President) Jeff Tatum, Avon & Somerset EMMG (Sec) Mr Mike Strickland, Cotswold EEMG (Chmn) Mr John Emmerson, Cotswold EEMG (Sec) Mr Tim Linford, Wessex EEMG (Chmn) Joe McSavage, Wessex EEMG (Sec) Rob Baldwin Cotswold EEMG (Guest) Apologies: Steve Hodges, Avon and Somerset EEMG (Sec), Derek Prickett Devon & Cornwall EEMG (Chmn), Alan Whipps Devon & Cornwall EMMG (Sec). 2. Minutes of the last meeting (23 rd November 2012) & matters arising PH has corrected the title of the film in item 6 of the 76 th meeting minutes which should read The Sky is Pink. PH has created a private page for past minutes of the South West Group. See http://www.oursouthwest.com/eemg/1976 which is limited to the use of group officers and committee members only. All agreed that the minutes of the 76 th meeting were correct. MS was asked to sign the minutes on behalf of the South West Group. 3. Group Reports TL JT MS Wessex Group ~ Structure the same as last year, five committee members, five to six meeting per year at a cost of 13.50 each per member attending.. On average around 22/23 out of 125 members attend per meeting; a lot of interest in fracking is currently a hot topic in the group. Avon & Somerset Group ~ No change to the current structure and officers, Mike Grabham is the new treasurer and is in the process of amending his group s data base. Around 150/200 members are invited to each meeting. The group is carrying out a programme to attract new members. The most interesting talk was from Worcester Bosh Boilers. Change of venue for group meetings, now held at Arnos Manor Hotel at a cost of 12.20 per member. Cotswold Group ~ Roughly 8 meetings per year and 1 site visit, attendance in the order of 30 plus per meeting. The Group will continue to meet at the Stratton House Hotel and have signed a contract with the hotel to the end of 2014. CEEMG have introduce a scoring sheet for members to complete after
each seminar (copy attached) which rates members views of the speakers and as an aid to picking up some new members. The Group has 80 paid up companies with a delegate list of approximately 300 company representatives. AW Devon & Cornwall Group. The group Secretary has been requested to supply a section for inclusion with these minutes but to date these have not been received. 4. Financial Stability of the Groups JT TL MS AW At this moment in time Avon & Somerset forecast a deficit in the current financial year. The last meeting was sponsored so this has helped provide financial support, The Group was anticipating that the new treasurer can generate further income by reviewing its current billing system. Reserves of about 7k are sufficient for 3-4 years. The group has moved most of its meetings to Arnos Manor Hotel which costs more but better for members; there are no plans to increase membership rates. Wessex ~ Currently has 3,700.00 in the bank, around 600.00 less than in previous financial year, not reached breakeven point yet, enough finance for 6-7 years. Wessex keep putting up subscriptions with no loss of members, not guaranteed any sponsors. Cotswold ~ Finance cost per seminar for the last 3 years had been in the order of 500. On the 1 st April 2013 CEEMG increased subscription for 2013/2014 year. All meetings were monitored very carefully for two reasons (1) To ensure that those attending the seminar were paid up members and (2) to identify that those who did not turn up without a good reason were spoken to as each non attendee costs the group about 13 per head. CEEMG membership invoices were sent to the company as they were the member and those attending the seminars were the company representatives. The Group had financial reserves which provides for 9-10 years activities. Devon & Cornwall ~ No information available for this meeting. 5 Website Management PH showed the group s homepage Our South West on the screen. There had been problems with photographs being used by others but PH had found a solution. The link to groups on the home page had made access to each group easier. There had been 176 hits between January and May, 190 a month - a higher level than last year. TL had the password for the site in case PH was not available. PH requested next year s seminar program (Autumn 2013 and, Spring 2014) and can generally load data within 24 hours. The website for historical Chairmen & Secretaries meeting notes was http://www.oursouthwest.com/eemg/1976, as already stated, with access restricted to those who knew the URL (no external links so Google is unaware of the page). The group thanked PH for his work
6. Website Finances PH reported that CEEMG managed the budget which stood at 5,463.89 when handed over. Since then site fees of 891.60 and 25.00 which takes the site up to March 2015 have been spent, leaving a figure of 4,993.09 The group needed to be aware that taking inflation into account the budget was anticipated to last until 2020. 7. Public Liability Insurance CEEMG had paid the current liability insurance which covered each group to a value of 5 million. Devon & Cornwall had yet to pay their contribution. POST MEETING NOTE Account now settled PH asked if he was covered for the website in case of copyright infringement. MS to Action POST MEETING NOTE Action taken by MS. Phil Harding advised that he is not covered. 8. To consider a paper on LinkedIn by Richard Helen CEEMG CEEMG send out email newsletters but by having a LinkedIn group site can be used as a discussion medium for any appropriate subject. Note the site was controlled by Richard Hellen who entered the members name onto the site upon request from the member. The site was on 2 levels, one being a member s site and the other being a committee site. The site was limited access to stop Companies taking over the site to promote themselves or advertising activities. The Cotswold Group stated that they were prepared to authorise the other group Chairman/Secretaries to access and contribute to our system. Those wishing to be connected should advise MS. TL and JT both stated at the meeting that they would like to be connected to the system. MS/Richard Hellen to Action POST MEETING NOTE Those requesting access to date have been connected to the Linkedin system. 9. To consider other papers on Promotional Activities A letter from John Obell which was sent to three groups about them being a society of energy engineers and on how they could help us was discussed. MS raised concerned about them taking members away from the groups. Members are asked to discuss at their committee meetings so that we could produce a regional policy from such applicants. Vilnis Vesma has added three groups to his site; UKAEE is another free way for groups to be publicised.
CEEMG had linked up with Gfirst (LEP) and BSI to promote our events, all they want in return is for us to tell which of their members attended our events. 10. Any Other Business None. Alan Whipps had intended to attend the meeting but was advised late the previous night that his son had been taken seriously ill in Spain. All members understood his reason for withdrawing from the meeting and conveyed their wishes for Alan s son s speedy recovery. MS passed on these good wishes by email later in the day. 13. Time, date and place of next meeting Wessex to sponsor the next meeting, potentially 3 rd December 2013, possible linking this with their members meeting, there may a problem with the size of the room. TL to advise as soon as possible whether the date is convenient to them or to suggest possible alternatives dates for consideration.
Responding to Climate Change Promoting Low Carbon Solutions Good Environmental Practice SEMINAR APPRAISAL Name VSDs (Variable Speed Drives) A Organization (Optional) Rating, Please Circle As Appropriate How interesting did you find the subject? B How much immediate use was the content to you? C How much background use was the content to you? D How well did the presentation satisfy your expectation? Evolution of Electricity Distribution A How interesting did you find the subject? B How much immediate use was the content to you?
C How much background use was the content to you? D How well did the presentation satisfy your expectation? Please indicate any Subjects/Speakers/Companies you would Like/Recommend for Presentations at Future Seminars - Please give contact Names/Telephone Numbers /Email Addresses if known